----- Original Message ----- From: Benjamin Ward <> To: Analogue Heaven <analogue@hyperreal.org> Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 7:02 PM Subject: [AH] Current Kraftwerk tour report
My friend Ian went to see the 'Werks in Paris at the weekend. This is his report:
"You asked for reports, so here goes... Kraftwerk were, as you might expect, pretty amazing and bizarre. For aficionados, there were significant 'aesthetic' changes from previous presentations, however.
How to describe? Well the new stage set removes all previous banks of keyboards, units, effects, etc. It is now down to literally the four of them each standing behind their own most fantastic minimal console - a totally flat board with a Sony Vaio computer protruding upwards from the rear. Er, and that's it! (Other than a foot-pedal each). Gawd knows what is in each console, but Ralf's seemed to contain a keyboard, and they all seemed to have some buttons to press and wheels to bend.
The new visuals were *stunning* (We were right at the front, no surprises there, you might say). The new films and pictures for TEE, Autobahn, Pocket Calculator were all amazing, and very beautiful, on an enormous screen that was about 40 foot wide by maybe 12 foot tall, and which sometimes was one picture, but at other times divided up into three different shots. TEE was so amazing I almost felt giddy as I danced along to the pictures. But, even better, not only were we treated to a superb totally new dancey version of 'Expo 2000', but some pretty amazing visuals with it. We also were indulged with 'The Model' and my own personal poptatstic moment...... for the first time in 20 years, 'Neon Lights' complete with utterly sublime, beautifully shot, film pieces. So the set list was fab.
Other memorable moments included poor Florian having a cold, and having to sneeze a few times (this causing possibly the biggest human movements of the entire evening's proceedings!) and a rather fantastic machine breakdown of a false start when they attempted to kick off with 'The Robots' only to find said console systems making no noises other than the initial bleeps. Cue Teutonic puzzled looks, the dropping of the curtain and the potential for some misplaced boings. However, all was re-started and the action began!
We danced and sang along; our French colleagues were (perhaps oddly) far more restrained than the English contingent. Thus, we got plenty of gently restrained quizzical looks from Ralf and Florian ("Ach, nein, Wir haben Nutterz in das Haus" ) who, nonetheless, clearly appreciated our enthusiasm The new song had progressed by at least few bars since 1998, so things are now obviously moving rapidly at Kling Klang studios.
Quite amazing; a real treat, and great to see at *such* close quarters in such a personal and small setting. Here's hoping for a UK tour.... (I did my best by shouting out 'Come back to England'!) Oh, and we got to say 'bon soir' to Jean Paul Gaultier as we went in - extremely strict security too so that the new visuals were not photographed.
For those of you worried about details, I think the set list was something like: The Robots; Expo 2000 (remix) It's more fun to compute/Home Computer; Man Machine; Tour De France; The Model; Neon Lights; Airwaves/New Song; Pocket Calculator; Autobahn; Radioactivity; Trans Europe Express; Numbers; Computer World; Music Non Stop
All rather groovy, and I am still recovering from that, and 3 days of biere in gay Paris ;o) "
Thanks, Ian. From all accounts, it seems that he definitely wigged out to it all :-) Ben